I think this whole "cel elite" thing is just 
silly.

How does one qualify for it, for one thing?  For 
the second, if it's judged by quality of one's 
collection, then why would you WANT to be one?  
When you get right down to it, cels are things.  
Allowing oneself to be defined solely by one's 
possessions is more than a little ridiculous.  Is 
person A better than me because they have a Rei-
kun that I desperately want?  Am I better than 
person B because I lucked into some really neat 
Hellmaster cels?  The answer's no when we put it 
like that--but why do we feel the need to 
practically deify people with really, really nice 
collections?  Just because one has the time, 
money and connections to put together a good 
gallery says absolutely nothing as to their worth 
as a person.

The people here are here for one reason, and one 
alone: we have a stupid, albeit aesthetically-
pleasing, hobby.  Our non-cel interests (and yes, 
even our in-hobby interests) are almost always 
going to differ.  You and I both collect cels, 
but that might be as similar as we get--I'm not 
fond of Tenchi, and you probably don't like DBZ.  
You're most likely a very nice person (the jury 
is out on me), but I'd never have any reason to e-
mail you unless you expressed a specific interest 
in something very near and dear to my heart.  I 
get the feeling most people here are like that.

If you're looking for real friends, not just 
people who want to buy something from you or sell 
something to you, you might want to frequent 
someplace else.  Are you creative?  Find a board 
in your medium of choice and bond with someone 
there.  You get to know a lot more about a person 
by what they write or draw than whether or not 
they can afford to have seven TV Nurikoes.  Are 
you a news junkie?  Find a news-related forum and 
test your skills in debate.  It'll be lots more 
fun debating the future of Palestine than who's 
slapping junk up on eBay this week.  Heck, even 
finding a board related to your favorite anime is 
more likely to net you some friends--at least you 
all like the same basic thing.  

I'm not saying that it's impossible to make 
lasting friendships via this forum; it is, and I 
think everyone here has several examples of it.  
But I think if your primary goal here is to make 
best Internet buddies here, well...you might be 
barking up the wrong tree.